Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

Chorus-Leader
Admetus, you must endure this misfortune. For you are not the first or last of mortals to lose a noble wife. Know that death is a debt we all must pay.

Admetus
[420]
I understand that, and this sorrow did not fall upon me unexpected. I have long been worn down with the knowledge of it. But since I shall conduct the funeral, attend me here, and while you wait sing a hymn to the god below, a hymn unaccompanied by libations.

[425]
I command all the Thessalians in my realm to join in the mourning for my wife: let them cut their hair and wear black apparel. All you who yoke teams and all single riders, cut your horses' manes with a blade.
[430]
And let there be no sound of flute or lyre in the city for twelve full months. For I shall never bury one I love more or who has been kinder to me. She deserves my honor since she died for me as would no one else.Exit Admetus with children and retinue carrying Alcestis' body into the palace.

Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1994.

The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from
Amazon.com